(Written with authority and charm, this is a decorating bo...)
Written with authority and charm, this is a decorating book to read and to savor, as you acquire the knowledge and confidence to arrange a living place that will suit you now and be adaptable throughout the years, as your needs, your priorities grow and change with the times. The author begins by helping you focus on who you are, what your personal lifestyle is - the first step in planning how you want to decorate your space. "Style For Living" is something special. More than a book about interior decorating, it shows how to live with style in all aspects of our lives.
(Fresh, original, enlivening - Alexanders Stoddard's Book ...)
Fresh, original, enlivening - Alexanders Stoddard's Book of Color will reawaken your senses and enable you to bring more color into your home, your office, your life. Along with thoughts on the meanings and the sometimes surprising effects of color, there are invaluable practical pointers on its use in decorating.
(Describes how individuals and their "significant others" ...)
Describes how individuals and their "significant others" can beautify their relationships and their surroundings by living fully in the present and practicing self-nurturing
(A celebration of the letter as a form of art and a means ...)
A celebration of the letter as a form of art and a means of communication evaluates different types of paper and the proper occasions for each and examines the epistles of history's great letter-writers.
(Alexandra Stoddard has brought beauty and grace to the li...)
Alexandra Stoddard has brought beauty and grace to the lives of millions all over the world through her many books, including the phenomenal bestseller, Living a Beautiful Life. In Creating a Beautiful Home, Alexandra Stoddard generously shares her professional secrets as an interior designer as well as her personal experiences in renovating and decorating her own 1775 home in Connecticut.
(Celebrating tea as a beverage soothing to the soul, the a...)
Celebrating tea as a beverage soothing to the soul, the author recommends various delightful circumstances for the enjoyment of the soothing drink, emphasizing serenity and spiritual centeredness and featuring recipes.
Alexandra Stoddard, world-famous interior decorator, author and lecturer, originally opened the eyes of millions to the beauty and grace of simplicity in her phenomenal bestseller Living a Beautiful Life and the books that followed.
The Art of the Possible: The Path from Perfectionism to Balanace and Freedom
(As a speaker, author, and world-famous interior designer,...)
As a speaker, author, and world-famous interior designer, Alexandra Stoddard was the first to show millions of of people how to turn the place they live in into an oasis of tranquility, beauty, and joy.
(In her previous books, Alexandra Stoddard has written mov...)
In her previous books, Alexandra Stoddard has written movingly about many of life's important benchmarks. Now, in Mothers: A Celebration, she reaches deep into her soul and personal experience for inspiring insights about the blessings and challenges of motherhood: how this life-changing event transforms us, matures us, and pushes us to live more profoundly, wisely, and mindfully than ever before.
(In 1897, Edith Wharton and architect Ogden Codman, Jr., c...)
In 1897, Edith Wharton and architect Ogden Codman, Jr., collaborated on The Decoration of Houses, a groundbreaking book on the art of interior design. Now Alexandra Stoddard gives us her own version of decorating houses for today's world, making the wisdom and expertise from her thirty-six years of interior design experience accessible to all individuals, regardless of their budget or the size of their home.
(From moonlight dancing to sunrise swimming, this book exp...)
From moonlight dancing to sunrise swimming, this book explores the sensuous stories of love experienced by one woman during her twenty-three-year marriage while discussing how she has dealt with the occasional trials and tribulations within the relationship.
Open Your Eyes: 1,000 Simple Ways To Bring Beauty Into Your Home And Life Each Day
(For thirty-seven years and in nineteen previous books, Al...)
For thirty-seven years and in nineteen previous books, Alexandra Stoddard has shared her keen eye for design and sure sense of style. Now this renowned decorator and lifestyle philosopher takes readers to a new level of visual awareness, showing how to achieve the discerning eye that is the key to creating beautiful environments for living.
Alexandra Stoddard, American interior designer, educator, writer. She is a philosopher of contemporary living and author of many best-selling books.
Background
Alexandra Stoddard was born on November 8, 1941, in Weston, Massachusetts, United States, to Robert Powell and Barbara Rutledge (Green) Johns.
Stoddard grew up in a restored, eighteenth-century farmhouse in Westport. Connecticut, and spent summers with her family on a farm in Oneota, New York. At the age of five, Stoddard formed a garden club for children. She tended her own garden from age seven and planned to study horticulture. Stoddard’s flair with If the use of color and light was influenced by exposure ' to her mother’s fabrics and paints and by the art of the Impressionists hung in museums she visited with her mother and godmother.
Education
In 1961, Stoddard received a diploma in design from School Interior Design in New York.
Alexandra's distinguished interior design career began in 1963, when she joined McMillen, Inc., becoming a protégée of Eleanor McMillen Brown, the firm's founder. Alexandra became one of America's top design professionals, and thereafter established her own design firm, Alexandra Stoddard Incorporated. The art of design led naturally into the experience of rendering words into beauty, and Alexandra became a pioneering writer and lecturer on personal happiness.
Stoddard worked for her mentor Eleanor McMillen Brown, at Brown’s New York design firm, McMillen, Inc., until 1977. During this period Stoddard wrote her first book, Style for Living: How to Make Where You Live You, in which she proposes the perfect environment based on the reader’s goals, personality, and resources. Upon leaving McMillen, Inc., Stoddard began her own firm, Alexandra Stoddard, lnc„ setting up her office at home, which allowed her to spend more time with her daughters.
For the past twenty years, Alexandra has inspired millions to break the “rules” and pursue fulfillment. Now, as scientists have begun to discover the benefits of living a happy life, Alexandra provides practical ways to live happily every day, based on ancient Greek philosophy. Stoddard’s original theme of living beautifully and spiritually every day has resulted in interviews with Barbara Walters and Katie Couric, as well as appearances on Oprah;and she has hosted programming, such as "Homes Across America," on the H&G television network. Stoddard has been featured in, and has written, profiles, essays and opinion pieces in major magazines and newspapers worldwide.
Alexandra Stoddard has recently concluded working on The Shared Wisdom of Mothers and Daughters, and is focusing on her next three writing projects. She lives in Stonington Village, Connecticut, with her husband Peter Megargee Brown, also an author.
Alexandra Stoddard is an internationally renowned interior designer who achieved success with her personalized approach to decorating, eschewing the notion that homeowners must accept the dictates of the industry. Alexandra Stoddard’s writing, seminars and lectures contain a positive personal philosophy of ways to live a beautiful and happy life, laced with grace, wit and daily rituals. She was the first to write about ritualizing every day, raising public awareness to the importance of celebrations and ceremonies at home.
Stoddard's “background for your life” philosophy is that personal likes and lifestyles create an individual atmosphere. Her books reflect her design and lifestyle philosophies. Her use of design building blocks suggests how components of a room can work together for individual expression.
Her Child’s Place: How to Create a Living Environment for Your Child proposes decorating around times in a child’s life, using color and texture, and the suggestion that the child be included in the planning of his or her room. Best use of space is emphasized with her suggestions for wall storage. Stoddard advises against televisions and telephones in children's rooms but does propose privacy and the use of headsets and suggests the best choices for a shared room.
Stoddard prescribes the use of scented stationery and baths, and special touches in the kitchen and bedroom.
Stoddard writes how mutual respect and special events with husbands and children will create special relationships. She also advises self-nurturing and ways of avoiding stress. In Daring to Be Yourself, Stoddard suggests that clothes should be chosen according to lifestyle and what “makes you feel comfortable, what brings you delight.” She also discusses this theme as applied to home, entertaining, gifts, work, and leisure. Stoddard relies on her own experience with her first house in Connecticut, built in 1775, in her discussion of all the rooms of a home.
Stoddard’s title for 1997’s The Decoration of Houses is borrowed from a work of the same name that was written by Edith Wharton one hundred years earlier. Stoddard balances the fifteen principles of design with the practical considerations of budget and family priorities. Stoddard uses examples from her life in addressing relationships, problems, and challenges, and how making the correct choices not only solves immediate problems but contributes to the shape of one’s life. Stoddard also writes that personal energy should not be sapped by requests from others. She suggests learning to say “no” when excessive demands are made.
Quotations:
"Home is a metaphysical and spiritual place, an outward expression of an inward journey. Home is a melody and trinity of mind, body, and spirit the essence of the character and heart of those whom we love and with whom we choose to share our intimate selves.”
“Happiness is the first principle of life. Love & Live Happy.”
Membership
Stoddard was a founding member, chairman spiritual direction committee Church of Heavenly Rest from 1975 to 1977. She also was a member of English-speaking Union and New England Society.
Interests
Travel, ethnic cuisine, swimming gardening, reading, and collecting art postcards, antique quilts, duck decoys, desks, inkwells, and fountain pens
Connections
Alexandra was married twice. Her first husband was Brandon Stoddard but they divorced, and, on May 18, 1974, Alexandra married Peter Megargee Brown, a lawyer and writer. She is the mother of two daughters and has four grandchildren.
